Magistream Basics
Welcome to Magistream! Although things can seem overwhelming at first, in time you will understand the site and get a playstyle that suits your personality. This page will help you get your footing and understand the basics of Magistream. =What do we do here?= In Magistream there is a large variety of things you can do. You can... *Collect rare creatures *Create and breed lineages *Breed a small army of your favorite creatures *Do Quests *Hatch each other's eggs *Trade with other users *Buy and sell pets *Go Keep mining Don't panic! You don't have to do them all at once! In fact, it's nearly impossible to do it all at once, which is why several common playstyles have emerged. However, some of these activities are pretty much universal for all players. Keep Mining In Magistream the only way to make gold is to click other people's creatures (or to post on the forums). Typically, to make this easier, people use Firefox and the Snaplinks or multilinks extensions. Commonly keep mining is done by just visiting someone's keep and clicking every creature you see. All unfrozen creatures are worth 1 gold. A faster and more easy version of keep mining has emerged with the creation of image-free mines, though it still works the same. It is also possible to "Mine the forums". Go to the Reindeer Games forum and select one of the "click the eggs" or "egg hatcher" topics. Go to the most recent page and click to your heart's content. Some people also like to mine the other forums by clicking pets in others' signatures, however, the egg-hatching topics are the fastest way by far to mine. Buy & Sell Pets Buying and selling pets is done though the Trading System, however, you find others to trade with in the Merchant's Quarter forums area. All prices in Merchants' Quarter are "firm" and can not be haggled by the rules. You must post in the thread to say you want to buy a creature before sending trade. Be sure to read through a thread for special rules or to make sure the pets are not already sold before you send trade. It is good selling practice to edit your post to remove sold pets once the pet has sold. Keeping your post up to date will result in more sales and less frustration overall. When all your creatures are sold, change your topic title to "Sold!" to prevent confusion. Hatch Each Other's Eggs Generally, the best way to have your eggs hatched is to post your eggs somewhere high-traffic, then go off clicking other people's eggs and hatchlings. The only way eggs and hatchlings grow in this game is through clicks, so clicking others is considered polite and will get you money! Good places to post your pets include.... * Your forum signature * Twitter * Your keep, especially with an image-free mine! * The "egg clicking" posts of the Reindeer Games Forums * Your Myspace, facebook, Gaia or other website * Anywhere that does not say it's against the rules to post "click to grow" pets. Common Playstyles These are a few different common playstyles. This area is completely subjective, so feel free to mix, match, and play Magistream your way! It's all about doing what you think is fun, so get out there and enjoy yourself! The Questor This kind of player focuses on doing all of the quests first! This can be very challenging if you are new as some of the eggs required are rare or expensive. However, Quest Help guilds do exist if you need a hand. Typically Questors become Breeders or Collectors when they are done with their quests. The Breeder This kind of player has a favorite creature they raise almost exclusively. They sometimes establish lineages of their favorite creatures with special rules involved to help give their lineage a unique feel. Many breeders will sell their pets for modest profit, though, it is arguable that keep mining is more profitable than breeding much of the time so usually breeding is done out of love for a kind of creature. The Collector This kind of player aims to collect specific pets. They stalk the streams, the market, and assorted game threads to hunt down rare eggs and creatures. This playstyle is time-consuming and expensive, though very common. A few subclasses of collector include: completionist, army, Rares, Birthday, and lineage. Completionist This player wants every pet in the game. They buy donation pets every month because this means there are three less new pets for them to worry about. They sit by the stream for hours waiting for newly released eggs to float by. They keep mine like crazy to be able to afford old donation pets. This playstyle is not for everyone as some pets are nearly impossible to get and often sell for millions of gold, however, the rare few completionists who stick with this playstyle are usually rabidly dedicated and very shrewd with their gold. Army This player collects a massive number of a single species or lineage of creature. Usually these creatures are common stream-bred creatures, though can be made up of any non-Donation creatures in the game. Common armies include but aren't limited to: Koi, Hellhound, Jackalope, and Capricorn Rares This player tries to have as many rare creatures as possible. This usually means that retired Donation pets and Event Creatures will be high on their "get list". They also tend to donate to Magistream as it is the easiest way to get donation creatures. Some Rares collectors focus on getting only Quest-born versions of their favorite creatures and making an army out of them. All rare collecting is very expensive and time-consuming. Birthday This is a special kind of collection in which pets born on a specific date are collected. The species, lineage, or rarity usually do not matter as long as the pet was born on that day. It is common for posts saying "buying pets born on _____" to appear in the Mechant's Quarter about a week ahead of time to give people a chance to get ready to hunt pets for you. Lineage This collector likes to collect either as many lineages as possible or as many pets of a single lineage as possible. This overlaps heavily with breeders and is sometimes considered a form of breeder/collector and is very popular as it's generally inexpensive. A word about donation pets People make a big deal about donation pets, but is it worth it? Pros * Rare * Often very pretty Cons * Expensive. People actually spend time driving up the pet prices! * Breeding them cost file:shard.gif 3 * Do nothing special. Unless you are a completionist, a rare collector, or really love a donation pet design, do not get hung up on donation pets. There are dozens of kinds of beautiful free pets and lineages available which can do a lot more than donation pets can.